A Tennessee parenting plan is the court-ordered document that every divorce or legal separation involving a minor child must include under Tennessee Code 36-6-404. It sets the residential schedule, assigns decision-making authority, resolves child support, and lays out how future disputes get handled. Both parents sign it, a judge approves it, and once entered it carries the force of a court order.
What Must Be in the Plan
Tennessee requires the standardized form developed by the Administrative Office of the Courts, and the statute spells out what every plan has to cover.1Justia. Tennessee Code 36-6-404 – Permanent Parenting Plan Leaving out a required piece is the easiest way to have the plan rejected.
The Residential Schedule
The schedule has to account for every day of the year. One parent is designated the Primary Residential Parent (PRP) and the other the Alternative Residential Parent (ARP). That designation matters for practical reasons like which parent’s address sets the child’s school district. The schedule must specifically address major holidays, summer vacation, school breaks, the child’s birthday, and each parent’s birthday. It also needs to state the exact time and location of each exchange and which parent handles transportation.
Overnight counts are not just a scheduling detail. They feed directly into child support, with adjustments starting once the ARP has 92 or more overnights per year.2Tennessee Department of Human Services. A Guide to Tennessee’s Child Support Worksheet Getting the count right changes both the calendar and the money.
Decision-Making Authority
The plan has to assign decision-making across four categories: education, healthcare, extracurricular activities, and religious upbringing. For each one, parents can share the decision jointly or give one parent sole authority. Whichever parent has the child at any given time can still make routine day-to-day decisions without checking in with the other.
If the plan calls for joint decision-making, it also has to say how a deadlock gets broken. Without a tiebreaker, disagreements about private school or braces end up back in front of a judge.
Dispute Resolution
Every plan must name a method for resolving future disagreements. Mediation, arbitration, and counseling are the common choices, and parents can propose any approach the court approves, including a family member or religious leader.3Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts. Lawyers’ Questions The exception is where domestic violence or similar factors make the process inappropriate under Tennessee Code 36-6-406.
Right of First Refusal
Not required by statute, but common. A right-of-first-refusal clause requires the parent who has the child to offer the other parent time before using a babysitter or third-party caregiver. If you include one, be specific: the minimum absence that triggers it (often four hours or more), how notice must be given, how quickly the other parent has to respond, and exceptions for school and routine activities. Vague language here creates fights instead of ending them.
Child Support and Health Insurance
A completed child support worksheet has to accompany every parenting plan. The state requires the standardized worksheet so calculations stay uniform.4Legal Information Institute. Tennessee Code 1240-02-04-.04 – Determination of Child Support The formula starts with each parent’s gross monthly income from all sources — wages, self-employment, bonuses, investment returns — verified with W-2s and tax returns. Misrepresenting income can void the agreement or lead to penalties.
From there, the worksheet allocates the children’s share of health insurance premiums and work-related childcare between parents in proportion to their incomes. Existing support obligations for children from other relationships come off gross income before the calculation runs. The plan itself should say how uncovered medical costs (deductibles, copays, dental, vision) get split, and how activity costs like tutoring, sports fees, and music lessons are divided.
Divorce is a qualifying event under the federal COBRA law, which can extend a child’s employer-sponsored coverage.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 1163 – Qualifying Event The plan should name which parent maintains the child’s coverage and how the premium is divided, because the worksheet builds that cost into the obligation.
Who Claims the Child on Taxes
IRS rules do not automatically follow what the parenting plan says, and this is one of the most common post-divorce fights. By default, the parent with the child for the greater portion of the calendar year is the custodial parent for tax purposes and claims the child as a qualifying dependent. If time is equal, the IRS treats the parent with the higher adjusted gross income as custodial.6Internal Revenue Service. Qualifying Child Rules
The custodial parent can release the claim to the other parent by signing IRS Form 8332, which the noncustodial parent attaches to their return each year they claim the child.7Internal Revenue Service. Release/Revocation of Release of Claim to Exemption for Child by Custodial Parent For divorces finalized after 2008, Form 8332 or an equivalent statement is the only accepted method; attaching pages from the divorce decree does not work.
Form 8332 transfers only the dependency exemption and the child tax credit (up to $2,200 per child in 2026). It does not transfer the earned income tax credit, the dependent care credit, or head-of-household filing status. Those stay with the custodial parent regardless of what the plan says.8Internal Revenue Service. Divorced and Separated Parents Parents with more than one child sometimes alternate which parent claims which child to share the benefits.
The Parenting Seminar Requirement
Before a judge finalizes anything, each parent must complete a parenting education seminar of at least four hours. Tennessee Code 36-6-408 requires attendance as soon as possible after the divorce complaint is filed, and children cannot attend.9Justia. Tennessee Code 36-6-408 – Parent Educational Seminar The curriculum covers how divorce affects children, the legal process, adverse childhood experiences, and domestic violence awareness. It is educational, not therapy.
Cost is split between the parents however the court directs, and fees can be waived for parents who cannot pay. A judge cannot deny a divorce because a parent skipped the seminar, but the best-interests statute lists refusal to attend as evidence of bad faith, which can hurt that parent’s custody position.10FindLaw. Tennessee Code 36-6-106 – Child Custody Best Interests of Child The court can also waive the requirement for good cause.
Filing the Plan
Use the AOC’s standardized permanent parenting plan form. It has been mandatory statewide since 2005 and is available on the AOC website or from the local court clerk.11Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts. Parenting Plan Forms Homemade documents and outdated versions get rejected.
Both parents sign, and the signatures need to be notarized. When parents cannot agree, each may submit a proposed plan for the judge to evaluate. The finished document, along with the child support worksheet and supporting financial records, gets filed with the Clerk of the Circuit or Chancery Court in the county where the case is pending. Filing fees for a divorce with minor children vary by county but generally run in the range of $300 to $370; Davidson County’s 2026 fee is $309.50 without the service fee.12Davidson County Circuit Court Clerk. Circuit Court Filing Fees Effective January 1, 2026 Budget separately for notary fees, service of process if the other parent is not voluntarily participating, and the seminar fee.
How the Judge Reviews the Plan
A judge does not simply approve whatever the parents agree to. Every plan goes through judicial review under the best-interests-of-the-child standard, and the judge can modify any provision that falls short. Tennessee Code 36-6-106 lists more than a dozen factors.
- Primary caregiver history — which parent handled meals, school pickups, and bedtime before the separation.
- Willingness to support the child’s relationship with the other parent. Blocking parenting time or ignoring court orders counts heavily against a parent here.
- Stability and continuity, including ties to school, friends, and community.
- The child’s age, maturity, and any special needs.
- Physical, mental, and emotional fitness of each parent as it relates to parenting. The court can order psychological evaluations.
- Any history of physical or emotional abuse toward the child, the other parent, or anyone else.10FindLaw. Tennessee Code 36-6-106 – Child Custody Best Interests of Child
Only after the judge signs does the plan become a binding order.
Changing the Plan Later
A plan that fits a three-year-old rarely fits a twelve-year-old. Tennessee allows modifications, but the parent asking for the change has to prove a material change in circumstances by a preponderance of the evidence.
The threshold depends on what you want to change. Adjusting the residential schedule without changing the PRP is a lower bar. Qualifying reasons include the child’s needs shifting as they age, a parent’s work schedule changing enough to affect parenting, or repeated failures by the other parent to follow the existing plan.13FindLaw. Tennessee Code 36-6-101 – Domestic Relations Changing which parent is the primary custodian requires a more substantial change. Courts look at whether the change happened after the current order was entered, whether it was reasonably foreseeable then, and whether it affects the child in a meaningful way.
The existing plan stays in full effect until the court signs a new one. A temporary change before a final hearing is only available if both parents agree or the court finds a likelihood of substantial harm without it. When a temporary modification is granted without the other parent present, that parent is entitled to an expedited hearing within 15 days.
Moving After the Plan Is in Place
Relocation triggers a specific process many parents do not learn about until it is too late. Under Tennessee Code 36-6-108, a parent who wants to move outside Tennessee or more than 50 miles from the other parent within the state must send written notice by certified or registered mail at least 60 days before the move.14Justia. Tennessee Code 36-6-108 – Parental Relocation
The notice must state the intent to move, the proposed new address, the reasons for the relocation, and that the other parent has 30 days to object. If the other parent does not respond in 30 days, the move can proceed. If they object, the relocating parent has to file a petition seeking court approval. Skipping the notice can be treated as a factor against the relocating parent in any custody modification that follows.
Cross-state moves add a jurisdiction question. Tennessee follows the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act, and Tennessee generally keeps jurisdiction over its custody order as long as at least one parent or the child still lives in the state.15Justia. Tennessee Code 36-6-216 – Jurisdiction to Make Custody Determination Moving to a new state and filing a fresh custody case there while the Tennessee order is active is not an option.
Access to School and Medical Records
Being the ARP does not cut off access to school or medical information. Under the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, any parent has the right to inspect and review a child’s education records at schools receiving federal funding, unless a court order specifically revokes that right.16Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 20 USC 1232g – Family Educational and Privacy Rights The statute refers broadly to “parents” without distinguishing custodial from noncustodial. Schools must respond to a records request within 45 days.
Federal healthcare privacy rules work the same way. Both parents generally keep access to a minor’s medical records after divorce unless the decree or a separate order restricts it. Writing a records-sharing provision into the plan itself, requiring each parent to promptly forward medical records and school reports to the other, heads off a common source of conflict.
When a Parent Ignores the Plan
A signed parenting plan carries the full weight of a court order. When one parent repeatedly misses exchanges, withholds parenting time, or ignores decision-making provisions, the other can file a petition for contempt. Judges look at documented missed visits, communication records, and witness testimony to decide whether the violation was willful.
Consequences scale with severity and frequency. A first infraction may draw a warning or an order for makeup parenting time. Repeated violations can bring monetary fines, custody changes favoring the compliant parent, and in serious cases jail time. Keeping thorough records of every missed exchange and every ignored communication is the single most useful step a parent can take to protect their position if enforcement becomes necessary.